Pile fabric manufacture



Ot. 8, 1 N DOW vET AL v PILE FABRc MANUFACTUR Filed April 9, 1941 2 sheets-sheet 1 Izwezoas.-

@et g, M460 J. N. DOW ET Al.

PILE FABRIC MANUFAGTURE Fled'Aprl 9, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 tion with thermoplastics.

Patented Oct. 8, 1946 UNITED STATES PILE FABnic MANUFACTURE James N. Dow,

Dildilian, Suffield, ('mn., assignor's Sanford Carpet Conn., a corporation Application April 9, 1941,

14 Claims.

This invention relates to the use of adhesives in the manufacture of pile fabric floor coverings of large area made of assembled smaller pieces, andV its Objectis to frayproof the cut edges of such fabrics and to secure such edges together by adhesive tape seaming in a manner which is especially adapted for use on the common commercial types of Asminster, Wilton, Brussels, tapestry or velvet pile fabric floor coverings available on the market'.

The use of adhesives for these purposes has presented problems which, so far as we are aware, have not been answered despite extensive efforts by others in this fieldand in other unrelated fields such as in'fl'at fabric adhesive impregnakThe problems here essentially are that the adhesive of the tape, which should be thermoplastic to avoid the hours of drying time involved in the use of solvents, must not be susceptible to a 'cold flow that will let the 'seam yield and part 'even'when the floor covering is laid under tension. The tape must, of course, be so strongly adhered vto the rug or carpet backing that vit will hold during' long periods of service7 to which end the tape adhesive and the adhesive previously applied to the back- .ing for frayproong must bond firmly and permanently. This requires that the" frayprooflng adhesive also be thermoplastic so that 'it is softened by the heat used'in applying the thermoplastic tape.

Where the floor covering is of the usual sort, having the loops of the pile tufts concealed within a densely vwoven structure, the use, for frayp'roofing, of 'adhesives 'that liduefy chiey by heat rather than by solvent is also: decidedly advantageous because it avoids thearduous task of evaporating large quantities of 4solvent from within the dense backing structure which the adhesive must permeate to reach and secure the tuft loops. ButY the use of thermoplastics presents a difficult problem of achieving the degree vof penetration needed. When the usualAxminster, Wilton, Brussels, tapestry or velvet 'floor coveringis viewed from the back the pile tuft loops are entirely invisible and the backing fabric which conceals them and which the adhesive must penetrate to reach and secure them is tightly compacted and seems impenetrable. The use f pressures of thesort commonly employed to effect impregnation of fiat fabrics with thermoplastics cannot be used on a pile fabric backing because the pile is resilient and would yield and be crushed before any substantial'pressure could be applied. Furthermore, even if penetration of adhesive Longmeadow, Mass., and Ara T.

to Bigelow- Inc., Thompsonville, of Massachusetts Serial No. 387,694

could thus b e effected, its

before the adhesive reaches thus stiffens the upstanding through the backing flow must be stopped and impregnates and portion of pile tufts. The'object of our invention is to solve these problems. We have done so' by the provision of the adhesives and treatments herein disclosed for frayprooiing and tape seaming by which the backing of the floor covering can be impregnated in the desired limited amount regardless of its construction sq that the subsequently out edges are effectively frayproofed and a pair of such edges when abutted are' joined in an adhesive seam that is strong and enduring.'

lin the drawings: Figl 1 is a plan View, as seen from the back, of a pile fabric floor covering 'of' commercial Velvet weave p'r'ior to frayproong, partly broken away to show the pile loops that are concealed beneath the backing fabric. 7

Fig. 2' is a vertical of'Fig. k

'Figs 3, 3a and 3b are progressive verticalsections sliowin'gA the manne'r'in which we impregnate the fabric' of"Flgs'. l and 2` with adhesive indicating theappl'ication'f'of adhesive 'in' film form and' showing the manner in which he'a'dhesive is caused to melt` and seep through the backing to and section along the line 2--2 'around thep'ile loops, but not far enough to' reach and 'impregnato and thus stillen the 'upstanding portion of the vpile tufts.

Fig. 4 is a vertical section showing vtwo strips of fabric treated as above, designate'dA. and B, l which have been cut' and assembled withl cut redges abutting and with adhesive tape superimposed.' The application of"heat has 'resoftened the backing impregnating' adhesiveand softened the tape adhesive, y,causing them to bond together. Fig. 4d. showsv the finished seamed fabrics, right side.' up, withv arrows indicatingy the direction" of tension on the seam when the floor covering is subsequently instaled ywall to' wall in a room.

Fig. 5v shows a modification of the fabric wherein' thev pile loops are carried through the backing fabric, a part of the surface of the backing being uncoated and the remainder coated.

Referring tothe drawings, thefa'bric of Figs. 3 and 5, wefts land l and 2 is composed ofwarps 2, and pue'tufts'a looped about wefts 2. The warts arid' wefts form a backing fabric within which are concealed the loops lll of the pile tufts. For 'effectivefrayproofing' these component parts must be secured together.' The pile 'loops must be secured to the wefts'and preferably 'also to the 55 warps which they contact.

'I'he adhesive which we employ for frayproofvelvet pile fabric oor covering), determined in ing has as its chief ingredient a thermoplastic accordance with Tentative method of test for binding agent, preferably certain resins to be softening point-Ball and tapered ring appadescribed, which not only secures the component ratus, A. S. T. M. designation: E28-39T. Where, parts of the fabric against fra-ying when out, 5 in the appended claims, the terni softening but Which also unites effectively with the adhepoint is used it means the softening point as sive of the tape later to be applied and is sofdetermined in accordance with this method of tened by the heat employed in applying the tape. test.

When the fabric is of the sort above described We have found a number o-f adhesive compothe adhesive also includes, compounded with the sitions that will satisfy these requirements. For binding agents, certain ingredients which we example, we may lemploy the following ingredishall refer to as plasticizers and liqueers. The ents in parts by weight:

primary function of the plasticizers is to impart Parts permanent iiexibility to the binding agents and Polyvinyl acetate (Vinylite AYAF) 10 avoid brittleness and stiffness after application. Dibutyl phthalate Secondarily the plasticizers impart added fluid- Diacetone alcohol (4-hydroxy-4-methyl-2- ity to the agent at the elevated temperature of pentanone) 1.8 application but we have found that this added T l v'n l et t c vistitutes the bindn fluidity is not suicient to give the desired peneagellte; geydby 3C a e OL 1 g ut'l hthalaL a lasticizer. The tration on most grades of pile fabric. If a higher y p be 1S p diacetone alcohol is the liqueer.

To compound these materials, we preceed as follows:

The ingredients are cold mixed and worked in a Werner Pfleiderer mixer at about 70 C. The compound may be subsequently milled and calendered.

Our novel adhesive compounded as above described may be applied in any suitable manner such as holt melt or lm form. We prefer the latter and for ease in applying we calender the materials, preferably during their compounding,

fluidity without undue softness in the adhesive the resultant adhesive with substantially its nortially non-absorbent tor the adhesive and readily yields the adhesive when cooled to room temperature. By using such a carrier material we ob- Viate soiling of the heating agent, preferably an iron.

ing fabric weave under application conditions,

the adhesive lm should be approximately 3/ioo of an inch thick to reach and embed the ile must be limited to avoid crushing of the pile. 100psp Although the amount of crushing under a given As shown in Fi adhesive 6 is applied, adhesive side down and the iron 8 (Fig. 3a) at the temperature above average grade of velvet carpeting will withstand, the adhesive and H'quees it, it begins seeping y e Pressure 0f 2 Pounds into the backing, as shown at zo. The high uuidpr Square inch ity of the adhesive, enabling it to penetrate the To expedite fabric impregnation with adhesive .it is desirable to use as short a dwell of temperament, attributable to the presence of diacetone ture and pressure as possible, for which reason alcohol, This is a solvent for the binding agent temperature and pressure.

The adhesive which we employ should have temperature, pressure and dwell to seep downfier will evaporate. Thereafter the adhesive is cooled and becomes set and the carpeting will cordance with the present invention.

Extensive experiments have indicated that to down the pile and so be effective for this purpose the adhesive should have a softening point of between C. and fier to prevent such. excessive penetration.

C. (preferably about 100 C., for an average 75 Upon removal of the heat source the adhesive prevent amarte.

is.l allowed: to cool for of our` invention and undoubtedly still furtherv materials willoccur tothose: familiar with. the principles of" our invention. Thus, as a' binding agent, we may employ, in place of they polyvinyl acetatel other types of thermoplastics such as polyvinyl chloride", polyvinyl acetals, polyvinylidine chloride, mixtures' or copolymers of -these thermoplastics.

As a substitute for the dibutyl phthalate other knowngpla-sticizers may be employed such as tricresyl phosphate, butyl ricinoleate, dibutoxy ethyl phthalate, etc.

As a primary li'queer wemay' use in place of the? diacetone alcohol otherimaterials whichare good solvents' for the ingredients of the plastic, especiallyI for the thermoplasticv resin. Itsboiling range should be such that there will. not be a great: spread between the initial boiling. point andthe end point..

rIhe vapor pressurel of the solvent must not be so high that it will evaporate appreciably from the compound during mixing, calendering and storing. under normalV atmospheric conditions. must not be sof low as to the evaporation of solvent from the' film under the application conditions. found that best results are obtained with solvents having a vapor pressure between 0.5 and 84.0 mm; Hgat 30o C'. and an initial boiling point above 135 C. and an end point below 200 C'.

'I-hefollowing is a list of solvents' of commercial gradeV which mightV be used for the purpose..

Bmlmg ram? .Vapor pressure d-...-J- F Cellosolvc acetate. 3 Disoontyl letone 4 i.sopfooyl'laetatc. 5 Diacetone alcohol 2 iNIethyl-n-besyl lieto 3 Butyl Cellosolve- 0.9' Butyl Cellosolve acetate.. Less thanl Naturally the odor, the toxicity and the inflammability of the solvents Amust be taken into consideration depending on the workroom conditions.

In Fig. 5 of specialv type of fabric,- available on the market, which may be similarto that shown in Figs. 1- to 4 except that it is woven, in accordance with well-known practices, to cause the pile loops Illa. to protrude through the backing fabric to appear on its exposed surface. When frayproofing such a fabric the need for the high fluidity of the adhesives above mentioned is, of course, obviated but otherwise our invention is as applicable toV this type of fabric as to the conventional Weave; Thus, we employ adhesives which are thermoplastic to frayproof lsuch fabricsr and on tapes to secure cut pieces together, such that a.

. experiments have the drawingsl we have shown a I .kneading action. After cooling,

' with a material which will bridge over good. bond; isv obtained both` forv frayproofing and' tape; adhesion. and cold flow is: minimized. For frayproofing; We prefer-ablyemploy thermoplastic binding. agentsf of the same nature as those employedf'. for ordinary weaves, althoughv those adhesives may',.ifdesired; be appliedto such readily accessible loops by the; use of solutions or emulsiona of solutions rather' than heat softened films.

The adhesive with whichthe-r rug is frayproofed in accordance with ther foregoing treatments is particularlyy welladapted tobond with certain tape adhesives', now to be described, by which several pieces of frayproofed and cut fabric mayv be seamed together at their abutting edges.

The: tape adhesive preferably consists of a thermoplastic res'n which not only' bondswith thezfrayprooiing: adhesive, particularly whenthe latter is also reheated during` the! application of the" tape, but which, after' application and cooling, is susceptible toa minimumof cold flow so that the seam does' not part under tension. Our

shown that at room temperatures up to 50 C. a seam madev with this tape should have a tensile strength sufficient to withstandl a pull in theI direction. ofy the arrows in Fig. 4u; of at' least 1'00' pounds per linear inch of seam and a` cold@ iicw insufficient to permit partingv of the seam morev than e of' an inch betweenthe abutting edges of the carpeting at the seam under a sustained load of 25 pounds" per inch of seam.

As a preferred example of our tape adhesive we employ the following materials in parts by weight:

. Parts Copolymer vinyl .chloracetate (Vinylite VYNS) 'l0` Tri'cresyl phosphate 2.3 Slaked limeA 0.1

To compound the above ingredients the tricresyl phosphate is first heated to a temperature of about C. after which the vinyl resin and the stabilizer are added and Worked in with a i the resultant compound can be worked with heated rolls and calendered onto-the tape cloth in much the same way as smoked rubber.

The' following is a further tape adhesive that we have found effective:

. Parts Copolyrner vinyll chloracetate ('Vinylite VYNS) '73y Di2.ethylhexoate of triethylene glycol 20 Lead stearato 2 The fabric of which the tape is made ris preferably of an open leno weave type for maximum strength.. To inhibit the flow of thermoplastic adhesive through the open meshes of the tape and onto the heat applying device used to apply the coated tape to the carpeting we preferably superimpose temporarily over the tape va lining material'. such as a highly glazed Holland cloth or C'ellophane, but we may coat the tape itself the tape interstis In the latter case, the bridging material must be flexible and, if thermoplastic, must have a high softening point so that it is stable forl av few minutes at the application temperature, 210 C., or thereabouts. For this purpose we have effectively employed nitrocellulose lacquers, cellulose acetate, or the like.

` After the'open weave tape has been treated with any of the foregoing bridging compounds, ifsuch are; used, it is coatedwithv the thermo'- plastic adhesive above. For this This calendering is effected by passing the tape and thermoplastic film together over or between heated rolls.

The tape is applied by an iro-n 8 preferably of the weight and at the temperature employed as above described with reference to Fig. 3.

of eXtenslve area from assembled smaller pieces ric by applying to its backing an adhesive having a softening point of between 85 C. and 140 C, and including a thermoplastic binding agent and a liqueer composed of a solvent for said agent, and said solvent having a low vapor pressure at room temperature and being readily evaporatable at elevated temperatures below the softening point of said adhesive, and heating the adhesive to liquefy the adhesive and to evaporate at least the major portion of said solvent to impregnate the fabric and embed the pile loops in adhesive, cutting the pile fabric s fray proofed, assembling .a plurality of pieces so cut with their bond together.

4. The method of manufacturing a pile fabric of extensive area from assembled smaller pieces i adhesive having a softening point of between C. and 140 C., said solvent having a low vapor pressure at room temperature and 5. The method of manufacturing a pile fabric of extensive area from assembled smaller pieces said adhesives to bond together.

6. The method of softening point of between 85 C. and 140o C. and composed chiefly of vinyl resin. cutting the pile fray proofed by an adhesive havlng a softening point of between 85 C. and 140 C. and composed chey of vinyl resin, said pieces being seamed `8.` The method o-f manufacturing a pile fabric of extensive area from assembled smaller pieces of pile'fa'bric at least some of which have pile tuft loops concealed in a densely woven backing fabric, which. consists in disposing pieces of fabric with their backs uppermost, applying to the exposed backs of the woven backing fabrics thermoplastic adhesive films in solidified condition and containing a the fluidity of said films when heated, heating the adhesive under pressure to render it sufficiently fluid to seep into the fabrics from theirbacks downward to and around said pile loops and to cause a portion at least of said liduefier to evaporate, solidifying the adhesive by allowing it to cool to bind the pile loops against fraying when cut, cutting said pieces, assembling some of said cut pieces with at least some of their cut edges in abutting relation, applying a tape carrying an adhesive, composed chiefly of thermoplastic to the backs of the fabric and heating said tape to to said fabrics.

9. The method of manufacturing a pile fabric of extensive area from assembled smaller pieces of pile fabric at have pile tuft loops concealed in a densely woven backing consists in disposing pieces of fabbacks uppermost, applying tothe exposed backs of the woven backing fabrics thermoplastic` adhesive films, composed chiefly of vinyl resin, in solidified condition, adhesive under pressure to render it sufficiently fluid to seep into the fabrics from their backs downward to and around said pile loops, solidifying the adhesive by allowing it to cool to bind the pile loops against fraying when cut, cutting said pieces, assembling some of said cut pieces with at least some of their cut edges in abutting relation, applying a tape carrying a thermoplastic adhesive to the backs of the fabric overlying their abutting edges and heating said tape to cause the same to adhere to said fabrics.

10. The method of manufacturing a pile fabric of extensive area from assembled smaller pieces of p of which have pile tuft loops concealed in a densely woven backing fabric, which consists in disposing pieces of fabric with their backs uppermost, applying to the exposed backs of the woven backing fabrics thermoplastic adhesive films, composed chiefly of vinyl resin, in solidified condition and containing a plasticizer and a liquefier having a low vapor pressure at room temperatures and readily evaporatable at elevated temperatures below the softening point of said adhesive to increase the fluidity of said heated, heating the adhesive under pressure to render it sufficiently fluidto seep into the fabrics from to and around said pile loops and to cause a portion at least of said liqueiier to evapthe adhesive by allowing it to the pile loops against fraying when cut, cutting said pieces, assembling some of said cut pieces with at least some of their cut edges in abutting relation, applying a tape carrying an adhesive, composed chiefly of a thermoplastic resin, to the backs of the fabric overlying their abutting edges and heating said tape to cause the same to adhere to said fabrics.

11. The method of manufacturing a pile fabric of extensive area. from assembled smaller pieces `of between of pile fabric at least some of which have pile tuft loops concealed in a densely woven backing fabric, which consists in disposing pieces of fabric with their backs uppermost, applying to the exposed backs of the woven backingfabrics thermoplastic adhesive films, having a softening point C. and C'. and composed chiefly of vinyl resin, in solidified condition and containing a plasticizer and a liqueiier having a low vapor pressure at .room temperatures and readily evaporatable at elevated temperatures below the softening point of said adhesive to increase the uidity of said films when heated, heating the adhesive under pressure to render it sufficiently fluid to seep into the fabrics from their backs downward to and around said pile a portion at least of said liquefier to evaporate, solidifying the adhesive by allowing it to cool to bind the pile loops against fraying when cut, cutting said pieces, assembling some of said cut pieces with at least some of their cut edges in abutt applying a tape carrying an adhesive, composed chiefly of a copolymer of vinyl acetate and vinyl chloride' to the backs of the fabric overlying their abutting edges and heating said tape to cause the same to adhere to said fabrics.

pieces of cealed in a densely woven having abutting cut edges frayproofed hesive, composed chiefly of vinyl resin, in engagement with the pile loops, said pieces being seamed together by tapes secured over the backs of their abutting edges by an adhesive composed chiefly of a copolymer of vinyl acetate and vinyl chloride. 13. As an article of manufacture, a plurality of pieces of pile fabric having abutting cut edges frayproofed by an adhesive composed chiefly of vinyl resin and seamed together by a tape secured overthe abutting edges by an adhesive composed chiefly of a copolymer of vinyl acetate and vinyl chloride, said adhesives being combined to form a unitary bond between said pieces and said tape. 1-4. The method of manufacturing a pile fabric of extensive area from assembled smaller pieces of pile fabric at least some of which have pile tuft loops concealed in a densely woven backing fabric, which consists in disposing pieces of fabric with their backs he exposed backs of the woven thermoplastic adhesive havingv of between 85 C. and 140 C. and composed chiefly of vinyl resin, in sufficiently fluid condition to seep into the fabrics from their backs downward to and around said pile loops, solidifying the adhesive to bind the pile loops fraying when cut, cutting said pieces, assembling some of said cut pieces with at least some of their cut edges in abutting relation, applying a tape backs of the fabric overlying heating said tape to cause the same said fabrics.

JAMES N. DOW. ARA T. DILDILIAN. 

